Shows that I love
1. Nina Conti (5/5)
She is the master of her art. You will witness a performer who had reached the pinnacle of her career. She is able to make spontaneous dialogues that make the crowd erupt into laughter. She has a huge fan base in the UK and her shows were sold out. It was a delight being her audience.
2. Atsuko Okatsuka (4/5)
I like her show because I could relate to lots of the things she said from an Asian perspective. She is a Japanese who migrated to the US as a child which makes her an Asian American. My favourite joke was the one where she made fun of westerners who seem to have a great many food intolerances and allergies as compared to Asians. As a self-proclaimed solution-based comic, she proposed that instead of guns and ammunition, we should just line up batons of bread as weapons to defend against the western enemies who are gluten intolerant. You can read more about the reviews of her show, the intruder, here.
Shows that I do not mind watching
3. Alice Fraser (3/5)
Compared to the other two comedians mentioned above, Alice Fraser’s show pales in comparison as it felt less coherent and unprepared. To me, the whole show was about how she wrote the show 2 years ago pre-covid pandemic, and how she had to update it because the content is no longer relevant. I do not remember much from her show other than her last punchline which is to pay attention to your loved one.
4. The girl who was very good at lying (3/5)
This is a solo play put together by a very young girl at the start of her career. She took on the whole stage and acted out every character in her play for a whole hour. A performer requires so much energy. She was acting and speaking for one whole hour. I am impressed by her ability to portray 3 main characters and 3 sub characters in her play.
5. Cirque Alfonso: Animal (3/5)
This circus musical is put together by a multi-talented group of performers hailing from Canada. The ones who did acrobats could also play musical instruments and sing. When they are performing their stunts, there’s always the risk of errors and troupe mates are on the watch out to make sure that any fall could be cushioned.
When a performer missed a part, the pressure to perform become harder and the audience was all rooting for the performer. It made me question if that slip was intentional to stir up emotions in the crowd or a genuine slip. Personally, I thought the show was a little too long for an hour and I was bored mid-way. Nevertheless, I think they are a very dedicated and talented group of performers and you can find out more about this circus troupe and the show here.
6. Vir Das (3/5)
Most of his audience were Indians and half the time he was speaking in Hindi. It makes non-Indians difficult to assimilate into his show and that explains why he had not expanded out of his domain crowd. In this show, he was sharing about the backlash he faced in India after performing his show entitled “I come from Two Indias” at the Kennedy Centre in the US. Unfortunately, I had to leave mid-way through his show to catch Atsuko’s show which had a conflicting schedule. I am pretty sure he would have bashed me when I left.
Shows that are not my cup of tea
7. Jordan Brookes (2/5)
Jordan Brookes has a large fan base in the UK and his show was sold out as well. However, I did not really get most of his jokes nor enjoy his aggressive style of comedy. What I sensed was a guy who was really insecure and found his confidence and niche in comedy. Glad that there are many others who appreciate his sense of humour.
8. Intervention (1/5)
This show was too draggy and I wish it was just a half an hour show instead of an hour. While the actors tried their best and the story has a little twist at the end, I did not enjoy it.